


In a thousand and one different ways

by ImperfectFantasyWriter



Series: Cisco drabbles [2]
Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Alternate Universe -Slightly, Cisco and Vibe are one, Cisco becomes Vibe, Cisco is always Vibe, Drabble, Hartley is precious to me, M/M, reference to canon character deaths
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-14
Updated: 2016-08-14
Packaged: 2018-08-08 18:15:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 900
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7768183
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ImperfectFantasyWriter/pseuds/ImperfectFantasyWriter
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <em>There's an endless expanse before him.</em>
</p>
            </blockquote>





	In a thousand and one different ways

**Author's Note:**

> Been a while since my other Cisco piece 'He who remembers', but I felt the need to do another Cisco centered piece, only this time with a smidge of Hartley Rathaway thrown in to satisfy my love for the character. 
> 
> This is a small drabble piece that I may be expanding into two or three parts over the next week or so.

There's an endless expanse before him.

He feels as though he's standing upon the edge of a precipice and before him, he stares out at the vastness of space. There are entire galaxies, constellations, nebula's, dwarfs and giants stretched out before him in an endless sea - all open to him and him alone. 

The entire cosmos thrummed steadily through every part of his body and soul, through every molecule of his very being. The vibrational energies of the cosmos were his. His to command, to bend to his will.

Slowly, tentatively, he reached out with one hand, and his fingers brushed the world in front of him. Suddenly light danced across his eyes, and a thousand lives were lived in one instance. He felt weightless and the expanse rushed towards him and the cosmos rushed through him.

He see's himself throughout time and throughout space, on numerous earths, planets, in numerous lifetimes. He could hear them. He could feel every part of their being as though - no, they are him. 

Vibe in a thousand and one different ways. In every lifetime he sees a version of himself. 

Too many to keep track of all at once.

Yet.

_He feels the hand of a would-be father crush his heart that day in Star Labs, feels the fear that was in his veins in that timeline._

_In another instant, he see's Paco lose Armando, watches the moment Paco is given his gift - but he feels the loss as keenly as if it were happening to him right there._

_In one lifetime he see's Cisco Ramon become the richest man in America, be cold and calculating, a shadow of the boy who used to collect figurines and comic books in his childhood. He see's the founder of Ramon industries suffer with terrible nightmares that could only be kept at bay by his private Doctors. See's him come face to face with a version of Barry not unlike his own._

_His chest pangs when Dante is shot rescuing a version of himself - he wishes his brother loved him that much- and it hurts him again later when Armando stabs at Fransico - he watches as Fransico bleeds the cosmos, desperately trying to tether himself to something, somewhere._

_One lifetime, Vibe never comes to be born._

The flashes come quicker now, intense, but he is calm. 

_Before him he feels Vibe's death at the hand's of one of Professor Ivo's machines, and see's him resurrected without his soul. He watches as Vibe rejects this possession and bursts into flames to be one with the universe again._

_Another flash and he see's a hurried Cisco Ramon walking down a side street - in this world he is a regular office worker, with a husband that looks like Hartley, and they have two kids and he gets terrible headaches that are only kept at bay by his visit's to a Doctor Thawne._

_A Black Lantern is another life lived._

There's a cold pressure against his forehead.

 _Now he is not on earth. This version was not human but stared out at night at vast orange sky's and walks through fields of yellow, this version was revered by councils for his wisdom of the world._

_In another Cisco Ramon lay's dying in an alleyway on the streets of Detroit._

_Another flash and he's in a bustling Star Lab's, he's head Engineer, and CEO. He's in the basement levels - off limits to everyone but a select few. A new cortex below ground. Vibrational blasts are coming from his outstretched palms. The Flash blurs in and out and he's alone again. Only he's not. Hartley Rathaway is there, and he's smiling, talking about dinner and laundry and a dog. A flashing alarm sounds and Vibe is off out of the basement with a momentary look back at Hartley._

_Another, and he's fighting Kid Flash._

_Reverb lays dead on a warehouse floor, Zoom looming above._

_One life has Vibe see the destruction of earth._

_In another, he is the cause of that destruction._

_In an alternate, he is their **salvation**._

The cold pressure is back again, and as he watches one Cisco dig The Flash's body from endless rubble, he feels his hold upon the cosmos slip. 

"Cisco?"

Cisco opens his eyes and is back in the lab, laying back on one of Caitlin's medical tables, staring into the eyes of one Hartley Rathaway. 

"Hartley?" 

In Hartley's hand's he see's his goggles.

"Your nose started to bleed, I thought it best to take these off" he waves them around as Cisco dabs at his nose. Hartley was right, his fingers come away stained red. He eases himself into a sitting position as Hartley hand's him a tissue to clean himself up with. 

"How long was I gone for?" He asks, slowly maneuvering himself off of the table. His body feels tired and sluggish, but his mind feels alive, alert in a way he didn't think it ever had been before. 

"Only a few minutes" came the reply; Hartley was placing his goggles back on their stand, after a moment, he turns to face Cisco "so, did it work? Did you glimpse any other worlds?"

Cisco feels the grin pull at his lips, his hand resting against the tables surface "Oh boy did I, like you wouldn't believe some of the things I saw".

Hartley smirked back, leaning against Cisco's work bench, "Try me".

**Author's Note:**

> So that was that. Short and a bit rough around the edges, but mine nonetheless. 
> 
> Hope you enjoyed.


End file.
